Beloved board game Catan is getting a novel… well, another novel

Catan, the iconic European-style board game that helped jumpstart a Renaissance in tabletop game design, is getting a novelization. Well… another novelization. The first one, published circa 2005, hasn’t aged particularly well, for reasons that we’ll discuss below. But the best part of this new effort isn’t that the last one might soon get memory-holed. It’s that this new one was penned by the creator of the iconic game, the late Klaus Teuber.

This new novel, simply titled Catan — just like the modern iteration of the board game — will be out on Oct. 1, and judging by the above quote there’s a sequel on the way as well. Here’s the official description: 

Norway, 860 – Determined to free his love from the oppressive rule of her Chieftain father, Thorolf — with the help of his half-brothers Yngvi and Digur — plot to help her escape in the dead of night. When their flight doesn’t go exactly to plan, the brothers and their allies are banished from the Northland. Left with no other choice, the party embarks on a treacherous voyage to their new home: Catan, Land of the Sun.

But new challenges await on this island, and discoveries must be made if they are to survive. Will the brothers be able to stand together and offer a better future for all the settlers, or will this new mission divide them even more?

The first novel based on the board game Catan, at that time called The Settlers of Catan and published in the United States by dearly departed Mayfair Games, was written by best-selling author Rebecca Gable and then translated from the original German into English by Lee Chadeayne. 

While I have not read the book myself, reviews on Amazon are largely positive — albeit quite dated. And while some of those reviews do make mention of the fact that some of the Viking characters are slave owners, the much more recent write-up at Bell of Lost Souls is somewhat less forgiving. The review, published in August, calls Gable’s work “unhinged” with scenes depicting “non-consensual sex, murder, brutal executions, and suicide.” So, more Outlander seasons 1 and 2, less family-friendly board game.

The original announcement made no mention of this first book, which is still available on Amazon. Polygon was given the following comment by representatives of the new novel’s publisher, Blackstone Publishing:

The Settlers of Catan was a collaboration with Klaus Teuber and published in 2005. It was a stand-alone title. The German publisher, a popular paperback publisher Bastei Lübbe, was known […] for their historical fiction at the time. The Gablé novel [is] a work of historical fiction by a bestselling author in partnership with the studio, while the new CATAN novels by Klaus Teuber are an integral part of the CATAN Story. Klaus decided to write the story himself as he was writing his autobiography, My Way to Catan.

Pre-orders of Catan by Klaus Teuber are available now, including at Amazon and local booksellers.